


Daphne Blake Is Moving Back To Coolsville

by Louises_1966_Ford_Thunderbird



Category: Scooby Doo - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Slow Burn, Sorry gang scooby doesn't talk in this one, post college
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-12 03:35:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19939552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louises_1966_Ford_Thunderbird/pseuds/Louises_1966_Ford_Thunderbird
Summary: Fred, Velma, and Shaggy have been struggling to stay afloat and pay their rent. Luckily, a certain someone has decided it's time she settled back down in the states. When Daphne moves in with the gang, Velma has to navigate her way through feelings she's forgotten she had.





	1. You just don't forget a name like "Daphne Blake"

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all, this is my first try at writing a fic so it's pretty clear that I don't know what I'm doing. I guess I'll just leave it up to lady fate to do her thing and if any of you have some sort of constructive criticism it's welcomed.

Velma’s eyes shot up from the page she was reading as she heard the door slam open. Standing at its entrance was her undeniably beautiful blond housemate with a heart of gold and a brain resembling a tiny, flickering lightbulb.

Fred was holding his cell phone triumphantly in the air, beaming at her with a grin of a child who knows he’s done something impressive. And he had.

“I hold, in my very hand,” Fred declared, “The solution to all of our rent problems!” It was at that moment that her other housemate, Shaggy, walked into the room, bringing a heavy stench of pot with him. “And, like, what is that? You finally got an internship that pays?”

While Velma could tell that, stoned out of his mind, Shaggy was being completely genuine, she could also see a slight pained expression cross Fred’s face as the words hit him close to home. It was true that Fred, even with a bachelor’s in business, was having difficulty finding a job, and was being forced to settle for jobs that didn’t pay him enough, or at all.

“Sorry Shaggy,” he said, wiping away any hint of a frown on his face, “you’re gonna have to keep flipping burgers to keep us afloat. But!” he announced, gesturing back to the phone in his hand for good measure, “I’ve finally found someone to fill that extra bedroom we have!”

“Jinkies Fred, that IS good news!” Velma exclaimed, applauding Fred for his good work. “Can you tell us their name?”

“Oh I can tell you a whole lot more than that,” Fred said with a sly grin, “The woman I just got off the phone with was an old flame from college, do either of you remember Daphne Blake?”

Velma could feel the blood rushing to her ears and the blush spreading across her face, she quickly turned her attention to a houseplant behind her, giving it a gentle spritz of water and making great efforts to hide her red face.

 _How is that even possible?_ she thought to herself, remembering the whirlwind of red hair and high-heeled boots that was Daphne Blake. _Why on earth would she come back here?!_

She knew her internal reaction was unjustified, she hardly even spoke to Daphne in school, and when she did it was little more than polite small talk about homework and the weather. But all the overthinking in her head couldn’t stop the blood pumping from her heart when she heard that name.

Her was brain flooding with images; glimpses caught during lectures, brushing of fingers as papers were being passes around, fiery red hair pushed back and contained by a purple headband. Velma shook her head in an attempt to shake her thoughts away, setting the spray bottle down and blowing out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

As she composed herself and came back to earth, Velma noticed that this whole time, Shaggy had been trying to wrack his clouded brain into remembering the significance of the name Daphne Blake.

“Was she that Italian exchange student with the... with the short brown hair?” “Nope!” Fred replied with a laugh, “Try again.” Shaggy squeezed his eyes shut and put on a very convincing thinking face,

“Okay, uh… was she—“ “Criminology 201 with Dr. Olson.” Velma interrupted.

“Bingo!” Fred cried out, “How did you remember that?” Velma moved back towards her book, offering up a shrug of false stoicism, “You just don’t forget a name like ‘Daphne Blake’” she replied, sinking back into the pages to avoid further questioning.

As she absorbed herself back into her reading, the sounds of her chatty housemates slowly began to fade away.

The night came slowly but eventually Shaggy left for his scheduled night shift, throwing his leftovers from dinner into a bowl for his rescue dog, Scooby. _That dog would eat just about anything_ , Velma thought to herself as she watched the animal excitedly tear through the spaghetti Fred had made earlier in a haste to get dinner done quickly.

While Shaggy was definitely the chef of the house, Fred enjoyed having something to do and tried to make dinner for the gang at least once a week.

Fred knew his pasta wasn’t very good, but he ate it quickly before heading out the door to go meet up with some other friends in town. And Velma, being the raging party animal that she is, retired to bed with some tea and a book.

As she had perused her bookshelf, searching for tonight’s companion, her eyes fell on one of those trashy romance novels you find in newsstands.

It had a man with long hair and killer abs embracing a woman on the deck of a pirate ship.

Velma couldn’t remember when she had purchased it but when she saw it she let out a laugh, _I bet this is exactly the kind of stuff Daphne Blake reads_. That thought stopped her in her tracks.

Staring down at the book in her hand, her mind began to drift back to images of Daphne, she could feel her face growing warm again.

As the night crept on, Velma tore through the pages of that trashy romance novel like she had a report on it due tomorrow. Her eyes wide with excitement and her heart thundering in her chest as the hero and the heroine finally meet, only to have the cruel hands of fate and the sea tear them away again.

It ended on a hollywood-style kiss, of course, and as Velma closed the book in satisfaction, she turned her head to her clock that read 3:15 am.

She scolded herself for getting too caught up in such a brainless book, placed her glasses on her nightstand and closed her eyes to sleep. Her dreams where filled with the smells of red lipstick and floral perfumes.


	2. It's definitely not France

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daphne's plane arrives in Columbus

Daphne lifted her sunglasses, allowing her eyes to adjust to the cloudy Ohio afternoon. _It's definitely not France, that's for sure_ , Daphne thought to herself as she swerved her suitcase out of the way of a woman running to catch a cab.

Daphne looked around, sure that she would spot her "ride" soon enough, it would be very hard to miss. Among the crowd of people she heard an obnoxious amount of honking to her left. Turning her head towards the sound she broke out into a goofy smile when she saw it. _He hasn't changed at all_.

Making its way through the traffic was a bright blue and green van with orange flowers painted lovingly on its sides and spare-tire.

Fred waved his arm out the window and Daphne waved back, laughing as she worked her way through the crowd of people. "Hold on just a second there, Daph" Fred said. He put the van in park and opened the door to let himself out.

"Always the gentleman." Daphne teased as she handed him her suitcase and bag. Fred's eyebrows scrunched upwards into a face of confusion, "Is this it?" Daphne smiled at him, "Oh, don't worry Freddie, I've got plenty more on the way. Traveling light is 'in' right now!" Fred smiled with relief, he seemed comforted in knowing that the Daphne he knew was still in there.

Daphne slid into the shotgun seat as Fred loaded her belongings into the back. She glimpsed behind her at the chip bags and various food wrappings littered throughout the backseats of the van. "Did you move in with a family of raccoons?" she asked, using the tips of her forefinger and thumb to lift up a Twinkie wrapper she'd found shoved between her seat. "Nope!" Fred replied, "Just one Shaggy."

Now it was Daphne's turn to wear a confused look. "What..." she spoke slowly, "Is a Shaggy?"

"Aw come on Daph," Fred nudged her slightly with his shoulder as he slid into the front seat, "You remember that stoner kid, Norville, that I roomed with Junior year." As memory flooded back into Daphne's brain a triumphant, open mouthed smile spread across her face. "Oh yes! That guy with the goatee!" "And the dog from the puppy farm!" they both said at the same time, then broke out into laughter.

Daphne missed this. Before she and Fred tried dating, they had been great friends. Even when they were together they would be that couple with too many inside jokes who did everything together. Their breakup was mutual and based off of the fact that they knew they just made better friends than partners.

Over the past few years, after she graduated, Daphne had been touring Europe; spending her parents' money, staying in fancy hotels, building and burning bridges as she saw fit. It had been a time of freedom and exploration for Daphne but as it dragged on, she began to realize that she had become lonely.

Living overseas strained friendships, as the days crept on, Daphne relied less on the comfort of her hometown friends, and more on the comfort of strangers with language barriers. Her life of freedom was turning into a life of isolation.

Fred, however, had remained a constant in her life; a golden thread, tethering her to her life back home. And while she was sometimes annoyed when he would call her at 3am, she was always grateful for his presence.

His presence now, in all its glory, was trying to describe to her exactly how he ended up in a rooming situation with "Shaggy" and how much she would love living with "The Gang". Though Daphne was curious to know more about Fred and his "gang", she was so tired from her flight that she drifted off into her own headspace, watching the city turn to country as the van drove across the interstate.

She nodded and made noises of acknowledgement at the appropriate times, but for all she knew, Fred could have been describing a murder he witnessed. As she watched the fields rush by in swaths of color, she was warmed by a feeling of home. While Ohio may not be the most exciting place to live, it was where Daphne, at this very moment, knew she needed to be.

She was jolted from her daydream by the sound of an adult man shouting "cows!" 

"What?" Daphne asked, looking at Fred like he'd lost his mind. "Cows!" Fred repeated, pointing out the window. There they were, cows. Classic, beautiful, road trip cows. As Daphne watched them float out of her field of vision, she felt her chest grow tight and her eyes grow misty.

"Everything ok Daph? Sorry if I was a little loud." "No, no" Daphne reassured him, patting his shoulder a few times, "I'm just tired is all. Jet lagged to hell, really." She rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn just to drive her point home. "Well you can sleep if you want, it's gonna be at least another hour until Coolsville"

Daphne gave him a thankful smile and turned her head back towards the window, letting her head fall back against the seat. 

_Coolsville_ , she had always thought that a stupid name for a town, yet, as silly as it sounded coming out of Fred's mouth, she had to admit that Coolsville had a lot going for it.

Or at least it would, once she was there.

She smiled at her internal joke and let her eyes close to the soothing sounds of freeway traffic.


	3. What on earth does a girl do for fun around here?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Velma becomes Daphne’s new mission

Velma heard a knock on the door, the sounds of Scooby barking, and the sounds of Shaggy running after Scooby, in a futile attempt to stop him from jumping on whoever was about to open the door.

Sure enough, as she made her way into the room she heard the sound of someone fall under the weight of a very excited dog, as well as Shaggy's familiar apologies for the dog's excitable behavior. 

_Like clockwork,_ Velma thought, _very messy, complicated clockwor-_ her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed that the person being attacked with slobbery dog tongue was not, in fact, a pizza delivery man, but was rather a red haired woman with a purse that probably cost more than Velma's college tuition.

Her ears perked up again as she heard Fred's voice, from behind the doorway call, "Scoob!" beckoning the dog to leave the woman alone and tackle him instead. Shaggy followed suit.

Freed from the trap of dog fur and slobber, Velma watched as Daphne Blake stood back up into her full, radiant self. Velma's mouth went dry and her palms went sweaty, _O_ _h man, here we go again... just introduce yourself..._

"Velma?"

No, she couldn't have heard that right. Nevertheless, she looked up and there was Daphne, looking her right in the eyes and remembering her name!

"Y-yeah?" _Real smooth_

"It's me! Daphne! Daphne Blake! We had Criminology together in sophomore year!"

"Ah, yes!" Velma tried a feigned recollection as if she hadn't been thinking about that class ever since Fred dropped Daphne's name a week ago. "Daphne! I can't believe it! It's been so long!" _Better._

"We have got a LOT of catching up to do, you and I! But first thing's first.” Daphne moved her face closer to Velma, lowering her voice as if to tell a secret, “Tell me, girl to girl, what does a girl do for fun around here? I just got here, I'm jet lagged and ready to party my butt off!" She finished with an exaggerated dance pose.

Daphne's energy was a lot for Velma to handle, and frankly, a little difficult to match. "I.. I don't really know. Fred's probably more of the expert on that than I am..."

Daphne frowned at that response, she seemed disappointed by the answer. But at that moment Fred came back with her luggage and she put on a big smile again, thanking him for his help and asking him to show her her room.

Velma stared dumbly into the space where, moments ago, Daphne had just stood. The smell of her perfume still lingered in the air and her voice could be heard from the other room. She looked up to find Shaggy watching her with concern.

"You okay Velm? You're spacing out." 

"Yeah, I'm okay it's just... weird... seeing someone I haven't spoken to in so long again." She was being perfectly honest with him but even she could admit it sounded like she was deflecting.

"Yeah, but it's all good, soon she'll fit right in here and we'll all be one big pea pod" Shaggy responded, laughing to himself, "As long as you're good, I'm gonna go take Scooby here for a walk to get some of that energy out, wanna come?"

"No thanks" Velma said, "thanks for the offer though"

He beckoned his dog to follow him out the door and waved goodbye as he left.

Velma noticed that the conversation between Daphne and Fred was coming to a close, as she heard lots of words of mutual agreements and both voices getting closer to where she was standing. Fred came into the room with a goofy smile on his face and said, triumphantly, "Tacos!"

"Is that what you're making tonight?" Velma asked, though the clarity really wasn't needed

"Yep! Tacos for all!" Fred exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air, "I'm gonna run down to the store and get some tortillas. I think we have everything else. Is our meat still ok?"

"No"

"You sure?" he asked

"Yes I'm sure, please get more meat, I think the stuff in the fridge has come back to life."

Daphne giggled at that. Both Fred and Velma blushed, probably for different reasons.

Fred made his way out the door, making sure to yell an "Adios, amigos!" that made Velma want to cover her face with her hands.

Her hands however, were preoccupied by sweating and shaking by her sides as she came face to face with the fact that she was now alone, with Daphne Blake in her home. No. Their home.

"Can I, uh, get you something to drink?" Velma asked, wanting so badly for something to do. "Yeah, sure, some iced water would be great." Daphne replied, sitting down on the couch and finally taking off her high-heeled shoes.

Velma brought Daphne's drink, as well as one for herself over to the couch. "Here, sit down." Daphne said with a smile, patting the cushion next to her. And Velma did, with as little hesitation as she could muster.

"Velma, I've gotta ask you something." Daphne's brows pushed together into a serious look of concern.

Velma straightened her posture and adjusted her glass nervously, "Yeah? Okay."

“Did I ever say or do something to you back then? Like, hurt you?”

It was Velma’s turn to look concerned “N-no, what would make you think that?” 

"You always seemed so scared when you spoke to me, I assumed it was because I'd done something wrong" "No! No, it's not that... I just have a bit of difficulty talking to..." 

_pretty girls? No, that sounds creepy and gross, don't say that!_

"... people."

Daphne quirked an eyebrow up. "You never seemed to have any trouble talking to those guys in the row behind us about the latest episode of Star Trek." Velma, getting more anxious to drop this conversation by the second, deflected with a joke, "Ahah... well, you know _nerds_ , they don't really qualify as people!" 

_Terrible! What?! That was awful, why did you think that would work?!_

Daphne was unamused by Velma's attempted humor. She pursed her lips together tightly, looking Velma dead in the eyes. For a few seconds it was just that, nothing but horrible silence and eye contact. Daphne broke the silence with a firm statement, "I've figured it out."

Velma, jolted by the fact that there was speaking happening again, asked with caution, "figured... what out?"

Daphne closed her eyes and let her finger rest on her chin. "I knew even before I got here that I would have to do something so my time here wouldn't be a total waste. And I've just come to the conclusion that the thing I have to do, is you!"

_What?!_ Red lights and sirens were going off in Velma's brain, she was positive her face was fully flushed with red. Her mouth could only move enough to make out a barely coherent, "..whaa..." before she was interrupted again by more of Daphne's monologue.

"You, Velma Dinkley, are my purpose, my mission here in Coolsville!"

"Oh, hold on now..." Velma was beginning to catch on to something, "Are you talking like some teen-movie style guru who's here to fix my life? You know; fix my wardrobe, style my hair, take off my glasses... etc.?"

"Oh honey, no!" Daphne's eyes opened again, her hand shooting down from her chin to instead rest on Velma's knee. Velma looked at the hand, wide-eyed, then back at Daphne who seemed unfazed by the gesture.

"Your look is just fine, very you! I mean, my mission is to find that inner you that I've been so deprived of! I need that real, human connection Velma, and you're my tabula rasa! My mission, miss Dinkley is to find out everything there is to know about you under all those layers of defense you have built up."

Velma's mouth hung open _she's nuts!_ she thought to herself as she stared back into those blue eyes, now lit with a fiery passion behind them.

"So don't you worry, Velma, my mission will be one of observation, like solving a mystery! I won't change a hair on your head and I _definitely_ wouldn't touch those glasses, they look so cute on you..." her eyes softened slightly, she looked down and Velma could see a crease quickly appear, then disappear between her brows.

It seemed that she had just then noticed the placement of her hand as she quickly moved it away to rest on her lap.

Velma stayed silent, shaken from the entire interaction, as Daphne stood up again. With perfect posture she strode across the small room and turned to face Velma. 

"So, I will ask you again, Velma Dinkley: What on earth does a girl do for fun around here?"


End file.
